


Of Truths and Tests

by Evil_Squirrel



Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: 3 Percent (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Past Character Death, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26917627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Squirrel/pseuds/Evil_Squirrel
Summary: Michele is resting, recovering from a stab wound. She gets visited by Glória who tells her more than she wanted to hear.Day 12: Broken trust
Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962403
Kudos: 1





	Of Truths and Tests

Michele was lying in a bed, staring at the ceiling. She was in the Process building as all the people who needed treatment were; after all, it was the only modern building that wasn’t burned down or damaged by the Pulse. The room she was in was similar to the room she lived in during her Process. Before she woke up, she could almost hear André’s voice, talking to the Founding Couple. People told her he had stabbed her, but she had hardly any recollection of the event; the last thing she clearly remembered was talking to Xavier. She couldn’t even ask André about this anymore since she got told he killed himself. Despite them not being on good terms, she felt a dull ache when she thought about not seeing him again.

Somebody knocked on the door. Michele jerked in the bed, looking around.

“Come in.” She shook her head. It was probably Elisa. Even with the use of the Offshore medicine, Michele still needed to rest.

The door opened and, to Michele’s surprise, Glória came in. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be harmed. Her smile was as big as always and her eyes were shining. Her left hand was resting on her belly, despite not having a prominent baby bump yet.

“You can sit down here.” Michele patted a place on her bed, but Glória took a chair instead. “I hope you will fill me up on what’s going on! I heard that the first few meetings were a bit rocky…”

“Yes, there are still some disputes between groups. Many of the church members still aren’t happy that there’s no Process since they got nothing to worship now. Marcela doesn’t really show up that much, but when she does, she always draws all the attention to herself by all means.”

“Sounds like her.” Michele propped herself up more. “What about Joana and others?”

“They’re alright. Joana and Natália spend all the time together and Rafael started talking to his family.”

“Great news.” Michele smiled. She was supposed to be let out by the end of the week she lost lot of blood before Xavier found her. It was nice hearing that all the surviving former Shell members seemed to do alright. Ah, Shell… that might hurt Michele even more than André. The place she built to offer an alternative to the Offshore for the people who needed it the most. With that place, the last reminders of Fernando also burned. Michele gulped, trying not to cry.

“Something’s wrong?” Glória asked, getting closer.

“It’s… it’s just… it’s just all the stuff that happened.” Michele hugged Glória, hiding her face in her shoulder. “The Shell burning, André, Marco and… everything. We won in the end, but we lost so much.”

“That’s true.” Glória’s hand traveled through Michele’s hair, caressing her. Michele hoped that she didn’t wake anyone up with her sobbing. They both bounced front and back with Glória patting Michele on her back.

“You know, Glória… when we met here back then, I was just shown the Shell burning and… and I was so glad I saw you here because it meant that at least you were safe and… I thought that everybody died and… we did a right thing, they couldn’t get away with it…”

“It was me who burned the Shell.” Michele pulled away from Glória, staring at her.

“What?” She was sure she just misheard a name. It must’ve been somebody’s name and she misheard it because she was crying, for sure. Whose names began with M? It didn’t sound like Marco at all and he wouldn’t, Mauricio was a kid and…

“I was the one who burned the Shell,” Glória said, unable to maintain eye contact anymore.

Michele stopped crying. These words fell like a kick into stomach. She stared at Glória who was trying to make herself smaller, hugging herself and looking anywhere else. This couldn’t be true. Glória. Burning the Shell. There was no other reason for Glória to confess to that though. “Why?”

“Marcela promised me that…”

“You trusted Marcela?” Michele didn’t bother lowering her voice anymore. “You trusted somebody who was a prisoner and who you knew would rather be anywhere else, who had a reason to lie to you, who sabotaged the Shell in the past and who was proven to be a manipulator? You trusted her?”

“I wanted a better life for my baby and…”

“A better life for your baby? When you knew that we sent a group to make the Pulse? And you were really willing to burn the Shell and the people in it just for yourself and your baby?” Michele was breathing heavily.

“I warned them…” Glória was barely whispering at this point, her head down.

“You warned them?” Michele stood up, immediately feeling pain in her healing wound, but she didn’t sit down. She shook Glória’s shoulders. “Glória, we trusted you!”

“You trusted me?” Glória finally looked up. Her voice regained steadiness. “Really? It didn’t look like that.”

“I trusted you more than I should have,” Michele said. There was no more anger anymore, just a deep feeling of disappointment. Not just in Glória, but also in herself. She should’ve known better. Glória already went against her once, yet she thought that if she allowed her to make important decisions that she would change. She didn’t. How come she didn’t predict that Glória would align with Marcela once again?

“You were testing me, not trusting me.” Glória seemed to be angrier. “I know when somebody’s not telling me the whole truth and I know you were testing me almost all the time. And how was I supposed to know that the plan would work when you couldn’t even put something in a fridge?”

“Glória, did you even believe in our plan in the first place?” Michele let Glória go and started walking around the room.

“I believed there could be a better life for my family,” Glória offered a non-answer. Michele sighed. It was true that Glória was surrounded by other church members since she was little and for them the Process was the most important thing on Earth, but…

“But Fernando…”

“Don’t Fernando me!” Glória jumped off of her chair. “Don’t try to guilt-trip me like that!”

“You having nearly constantly a hand on your belly to remind me of the child isn’t guilt-tripping, hm?” Michele put her hands on hips.

“That’s different.” Glória looked away for a moment. “You know that the reason they decided to go through with the Pulse in the end was the fire, right? So…”

“So what? That doesn’t make it any less bad!” Michele stopped to calm herself. She focused on the breathing and tried not to focus on the fact that her injury hurt increasingly more. When she sort of regained her composure, she started talking again. “Glória, I can’t even tell you how disappointed I’m with you and no, the fact that it helped the Pulse doesn’t excuse you. Not even the fact that you warned the people excuses you. I gave you a second chance and you burned it. If people will want to punish you, I won’t stop them.”

“Michele, you can’t do that! I’m pregnant! What will happen with my baby?” Glória nearly started sobbing.

“You should’ve thought of that before you decided to burn the Shell down.” Michele herself couldn’t believe she was that cold.

“You can’t do that!” Glória grabbed Michele by the hem of her shirt.

Suddenly, the door opened again and somebody came in. It was Elisa. “Be quiet. There are other people besides you two and some of them need to rest.”

“You heard it?” Glória’s voice was oozing fear.

“I would be more surprised if there was somebody nearby that didn’t hear that,” Elisa said, slightly touching shoulders of both of them. “Michele, you still need to rest, go to bed. And you, Glória… you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be doing this.” Michele couldn’t help but notice that Elisa’s hands were trembling.

“Wait! If people heard it, what will happen with me?” Glória made a few steps back, shaking.

“I don’t know. I assume you’ll be dealt with after the important stuff.” While Elisa’s voice sounded dull, it was clear that she felt similarly to Michele.

Michele went back to her bed, more fell than sat down. She started regretting the words she said few moments ago, but didn’t say anything. Elisa walked immediately to her too, checking her injury and mumbling something about not believing.

“I can help!” Glória seemed to be hopeless.

Elisa looked at her. “Glória. Please. Go away.”


End file.
